Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was released in theaters on and was a box office disappointment, earning only $122 million on an $80 million budget. In contrast to the anthropomorphic style of animal characters in other animated features, Spirit and his fellow horses communicate with each other through non-linguistic sounds and body language (albeit with many human facial expressions and reactions). Set in the Old West in the late 19th century, the film follows Spirit, a Kiger mustang stallion (voiced by Matt Damon as a narrator), who is captured during the American Indian Wars by the United States Cavalry he is eventually freed by a Lakota man named Little Creek with whom he bonds, as well as a mare named Rain. The film was directed by Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook (in their feature directorial debuts) from a screenplay by John Fusco, based on an idea by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who produced the film alongside Mireille Soria. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (also known as Spirit) is a 2002 American animated western film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures.
